


Sweet Tooth

by Misaya



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Candy, Christmas Fluff, Eventual Levi/Erwin Smith, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, Light-Hearted, M/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 22:44:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5558372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misaya/pseuds/Misaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi is the cashier at an old-fashioned sweets shop, and Erwin has a big sweet tooth. Or so he claims.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Tooth

**Author's Note:**

> Back up gift for girl-in-a-paper-bag for eruri secret santa 2015! Hope you enjoy!! <3

The cash register was being stubborn again. Levi gave it a smart smack, and the old-fashioned metal buttons dug into his fingers painfully. He glared at the machine, which remained silent, the till firmly fastened as the tall, blonde customer on the other side of the counter watched with barely concealed amusement.

“Having a bit of trouble there, are we?” he asked, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. Had he not looked so much like a mix of Levi’s current celebrity crushes (like Chris Evans and Michael Fassbender had had a love child together), Levi would not have hesitated a single second to reach across the countertop and pinch him. Or slap him. But the latter he’d probably have to be a bit more careful about, his manager Keith Shadis (aka Keith Shady-as-fuck) was rather anal about the video tapes in the security cameras, and probably reviewed them every night after they went home. At least the whole pinching thing he could probably pass off while handing the annoying customer change.

But for that to happen, that would mean that Levi would need to get the till open, an exercise in futility.

“Damn it,” he cursed under his breath. “It’s acting up again, it always does this when the weather gets too humid. Makes the buttons stick or something.”

“Is that right?” the man asked, all but twinkling at him. It was sickening, really, and Levi was itching to smack the smile right off of his face. “Just like a temperamental old man who can feel the rain in his bones or something like that.”

“Just like,” Levi affirmed, smacking the side of the cash register with a sigh. It refused to budge. “Sorry about this,” he ground out. The man’s purchases had already been ticked off and accounted for in the sweet shop’s ledger, the money received, but the machine refused to disgorge the appropriate amount of change for the pound of walnut fudge he had wrapped up for the man earlier. He shook the crumpled twenty that the man had given him. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything smaller than this, would you?”

“Nope,” the man replied, cheerfully. “I’ll be happy to buy more fudge, though.” He leaned across the counter, invading Levi’s personal space quite horrendously, and Levi most definitely would have shoved him back into the requisite three foot boundary between them had the man not smelled like his favorite Dior cologne, the one whose cardboard stocks of perfume samples he hoarded from the middle of the magazines. “I’ve got the most horrendous sweet tooth,” he whispered in a loud stage voice, and though it was only two in the afternoon, Levi could see the glint of a dusky five o’clock shadow beginning to wind its way over his jawline.

He was smitten, well and truly, and gave the man much more than the remainder of the twenty dollars worth of fudge, wrapping more squares in wax paper to try and distract himself from the way the man’s Burberry coat draped over his shoulders and wrapped around his back elegantly. He had a tartan scarf to go with it, one that looped loosely around the strong column of his neck, and all in all, he looked like he’d just stepped out of the front spread of GQ.

“Here,” he grumbled, trying not to blush as the man’s fingers brushed his own. “Enjoy your fudge.”

“Thanks very much,” the man replied, beaming a smile that nearly blinded Levi with its brightness. He must have been a big fan of those Crest white bleaching strips, Levi thought to himself, teeth that white weren’t natural. “Much appreciated.”

Keith scolded him when the ledgers and the amount of fudge left didn’t seem to match up at the end of the day, but Levi waved him off, knowing full well that Keith’s threats to fire him were empty ones. He’d been making the same threats for ages now, and Levi had long since grown immune to fear. He walked home in a daze, wondering if he would ever see the man again.

*** 

As fate would have it, or as the man’s sweet tooth dictated, he was back in the shop the very next week, right before Thanksgiving.

“Back already?” Levi asked, stunned.

“Back already,” the man agreed, having the good graces to at least look the slightest bit ashamed. “I’d like to say that I had help eating all that fudge, but truth is, I didn’t.”

“Jesus,” Levi whispered in awe as the man examined the maple candy display, straight from Vermont. “I’m not sure whether to be impressed or horrified.”

“Probably a bit of both,” the man agreed. “Are these good?” he asked, pointing to the red boxes of maple candy. Levi had a soft spot for the maple candies, and he nodded vigorously. “Do you mind if I try a sample? I’ve never had it before.”

Against his better judgment, Levi reached beneath the counter to fetch the box of maple candies he’d purchased for his own enjoyment earlier that week, loving the way it melted sugary in his mouth. He opened it, and held out the tin for the man to pick from, watching as he selected a leaf and popped it into his mouth carefully.

“Do you like it?” he asked hesitantly, as the man sucked on the candy, his lips pursing and his cheeks hollowing. “It’s my favorite,” he added lamely, as though this might convince the man to purchase a box or two.

“Oh?” The man’s thick eyebrow quirked in a most delicious manner. “If that’s the case, I’ll take a few, then.”

The cash register, as though impressed by the man as well, slid open neatly this time, allowing Levi to reach in for the appropriate amount of change and pour it silver and copper into the man’s upturned palm.

“My name’s Erwin, by the way,” he said, with a smile.

“I’m Levi,” Levi replied, wondering what had prompted him.

“I figured if you’re going to be sharing your candy with me, I can at the very least share my name,” Erwin teased, pocketing the change and picking up the paper bag Levi had put his boxes of maple candy in. “The pleasure is mine.”

*** 

The routine followed this way, each and every week leading up to Christmas, and Levi never failed to be impressed by the sheer amount of sugar that Erwin was capable of consuming. He seemed to like everything, from the thick slabs of nut-and-fruit-studded fudge that Levi cut generously for him, to bars of meltingly bittersweet dark chocolate, to squares of saltwater taffy that still stuck to the paper wrappers whenever they were twisted open.

And, with every interaction, with every box of candies that passed between them, Levi found that, much to his delight, they were growing closer and closer together. He gleaned information from Erwin’s casual sentences, like where he worked (as an editor at a local newspaper), what he liked to do (hiking, fishing, probably ripping apart logs with his bare hands), and even where he lived (“Oh, you know that old cottage on Poppy Lane? Yeah, I refinished it recently, built a deck, you know”). Levi was half-tempted to drop by, casually, though it was a mile and a half out of his way, maybe with a freshly baked apple pie sweet enough to charm Erwin into a mutual partner of the silly little crush he’d developed on the man.

Erwin had also begun to ask Levi’s recommendations for different candies around the store, asking him which ones he liked, which ones he didn’t, and making his purchases accordingly. Levi was tickled pink that Erwin would trust his decisions, so to speak, and set aside boxes of cherry cream chocolates for Erwin to try the next time he came in.

“Do you have any Christmas plans?” Erwin asked the week before the holiday in question. He was standing at the counter with a box of rose caramels, and his cheeks were flushed from the cold outside. There was snow on the ground and icicles on the eaves, and snow was still melting in Erwin’s hair even as Levi smacked the side of the disobedient cash register and it opened, solidly into his stomach, with a ping. He winced at the pain, and Erwin couldn’t help but be amused at the grimace that passed over Levi’s face.

“Sorry,” he murmured, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes with the heel of his hand. “You just look so cute when you frown.”

Levi gawked, the pain in his abdomen all but forgotten. Cute? Had Erwin really said that?

Erwin was still looking at him expectantly, and Levi realized that he hadn’t yet answered Erwin’s question.

“Oh, um, no,” he replied, fiddling with the strings on his bright green pinny that the shop required he wear. “Just having a lie-in, buying myself a birthday cake –“

The instant he said that, Levi winced, and wanted to take it back. He had intended for it to come out in a self-deprecating sort of manner, but if the way Erwin’s eyebrows furrowed in pity were any indication, it had just come off sort of lamely.

“Your birthday’s on Christmas, then?” Erwin asked finally, when Levi was sure he could cut through the silence as neatly as he could cut through a slab of fudge.

“It is,” Levi agreed, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him whole on the spot.

“Why don’t you pop round to my place for tea then?” Erwin looked almost hopeful, and Levi’s heart skipped a beat in his chest. “It doesn’t seem right for you to be alone on Christmas, and on your birthday, no less.”

Levi found himself agreeing before he could think about the implications of it, and with a grin, Erwin informed him that tea would be at four, and he would very much be looking forward to it.

*** 

The day dawned unseasonably bright and sunny, and Levi pulled on a puffy overcoat to protect him from the chill as he clipped some flowers from his tiny hothouse he’d installed in the postage stamp sized front yard of his cottage and made his way to Erwin’s place. The ground crunched underfoot, still heavy with frost from the previous week, and Levi’s breath came in silver puffs that dissipated as quickly as they appeared. When he knocked on Erwin’s front door, his cheeks were flushed rosy and his eyes were bright. Erwin ushered him in quickly, taking the flowers with a beam of utter joy and exclamations of how Levi shouldn’t have.

“Oh, and happy birthday!” Erwin exclaimed as he led Levi to the kitchen. “I did the best I could.”

The tea table was nearly sagging under the weight of what must have been dozens of boxes of candy, and a fat steaming teapot. As Levi examined the ensemble curiously, he found that the boxes were all labeled with the names of candies he was particularly fond of. He looked at Erwin, his gaze tinged with accusation and fondness.

“You don’t really have a sweet tooth, do you?” he asked, a laugh making its way into his voice regardless.

“Only for fudge,” Erwin replied back, equally as cheery now that Levi wasn’t flat out disapproving of his plans. “I just wanted an excuse to come and see you, if we’re being honest here.”

“Oh?” Levi’s heart skipped a beat. Erwin nodded emphatically, and motioned for Levi to sit down. They sat across the table from each other, and Erwin poured them both a steaming cup of Darjeeling and opened a heart-shaped box of chocolates. Cherry creams. Levi’s absolute favorite. He took one, and savored the bittersweet flavor spreading across his tongue.

“I always gave you extra fudge,” he said, clearing his sticky throat, and smiling across the table at Erwin.

“I know.” Erwin smiled, helplessly smitten, and the table groaned and squeaked underneath the added weight as Erwin stood up, leaning over the table to press a kiss to Levi’s waiting mouth.


End file.
